Tuesday, February 26, 2008

min b'mino aino chotzeitz

The Tiferes Yisrael (Zevachim ch 13) raises the following question: there are many examples in halacha of the principle that min b’mino aino chotzeitz. The Mishna in Zevachim (13:5) writes that with respect to the issur of offering korbanos outside mikdash, the meat of an animal attached to the eimurim are not a chatzitzah between the eimurim and the mizbeiach; placing a hunk of meat + eimurim on an outside mizbeiach would be assur. Another example is the halacha that the leaves of a hadas which fall off are not a chatzitzah between the hadas and the lulav. Yet, the halacha is that if a person goes to mikveh and presses his/her lips together tightly, he/she has not properly done tevilah. Even though the lips are part of the body, i.e. lips are min b’mino with respect to the body, they are considered a block to proper tevilah. Why do we not invoke the principle of min b’mino aino chotzeitz in this case? The lips should still be considered ra’uy l’biyas mayim so long as the only block comes from the body itself. Nu, what do you think?

3 comments:

  1. I would suggest that perhaps the lips aren't the problem, as the air within the mouth is also being chotzeitz against the water, but being that even a knot in a hair is considered a chatzitza, this would not seem to be the case.

    Maybe tevillah has a special hakpada against chatzitzah, but I can't think of what it might be.

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  2. Anonymous5:42 PM

    My recollection from when I learned the sugya is that the achronim draw a chiluk between the case of haalas chutz where the korban needs to be on the mizbeach. There we say that the basar is not chotzetz so we look at it as if they are not there and the eimurim are sitting directly on the mizbeach. In the teveliah case, the water needs to be able to get into the mouth --- or at least rauy to do so -- we dont look at the lips as not being there (the water needs to come into contact with the lips as well), and therefore, the lips block the ability to be rauy le-bias mayim.

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  3. I think that pretty much hits the nail on the head. There is a difference between avoiding chatzitzh (the lulav and korban case) and actually accomplishing the goal of contact with the water.

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